Many types of commercial and industrial systems involve processes in which liquids are supplied via fluid control systems that may include a variety of both pumping assemblies and control valves. These fluid control systems include, but are not limited to, those used in electrical power stations, chemical manufacturing operations, food and beverage processing, liquid gas supply and disposal, water supply and disposal, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, etc. These commercial and industrial systems, to realize any capability to monitor and track energy usage, it is necessary to acquire and install a plurality of separate components to the control valve assembly. However, this tends to make efforts to monitor and manage energy consumption both costly and time-consuming.
Automatic control valves are used to control temperature, humidity, or pressure in fluid heating or cooling systems by restricting the flow of a fluid by means of positioning a valve closure member. The automatic control valve operates in response from an external or internal controller or thermostat, and often is used is used with other devices to calculate and indicate the volume of fluid passed and energy consumed by the fluid system and interface with the process control or Building Management System (BMS). A building management system implemented using a communications network is disclosed in U.S. Patent Publication No. 2010/0142535, the teachings and disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference thereto.
Embodiments of the present invention represent an advancement over the state of the art with respect to process control and HVAC systems and the control thereof. These and other advantages of the invention, as well as additional inventive features, will be apparent from the description of the invention provided herein.